Recent flood areas restricted between dikes can be considered as the last refugia for the Tisza Valley biota, and also serve as ecological corridors for fauna dispersal. Sylvicultural management and poplar plantation, as the most severe human interventions, change the composition of river valley fauna, alter the direction of fauna migration, and homogenize the flood plain fauna. These finally lead to the irreversible degradation of the Tisza Plain biota. Poplar cultivation modifies microclimate, that also influences agricultural food production outside the dikes. Forestry practices produce numerous newly cut roads, along which the noxious weed Ambrosia artemisiifolia rapidly invades flood areas. Furthermore, poplar plantations are unfavourable for recreation activietes and tourism. The processes of the Tisza's regulation and the drainage of the Great Hungarian Plain seems to be completed with accomplishing the once abolished plan for the canalization of the Tisza.